Vincent Ujumadu
13 January 2009
OPPOSITION parties that participated in the Anambra South senatorial election in April 2007 which was recently nullified by the Court of Appeal in Enugu are meeting in Awka today to discuss their next line of action following the fixing of the re-run election for 24th January, 2009 by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The Court of Appeal in its judgment delivered on December 18, 2008 nullified the election of Chief Ikechukwu Obiora of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and urged INEC to conduct another election in the zone within 90 days, having agreed with the judgment of the election tribunal that sat in Awka that the election was marred by irregularities.
However, barely two weeks after the Court of Appeal decision, INEC announced that the election would be conducted on January 24, a decision that has not gone He down well with the candidates in the election.
The candidate of AC, Chief Chris Atuegwu told Vanguard in a telephone interview yesterday that all the political parties that took part in the election, except the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), would meet to take a decision on the next step to take.
The reason, he explained, was that it was wrong for INEC to fix a date for an election they would participate in without first of all informing the candidates officially. Besides, he observed that the anomalies that led to the nullification of the election have not been corrected, adding that it might amount to an exercise in futility if the election is conducted without correcting those discrepancies.
According to him, parties expected at the meeting include the Action Congress (AC), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) and Progressive Peoples Party (PPP).
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